The Cleveland Browns trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson and the fully guaranteed contract they signed him two will forever be viewed as two of the worst moves in NFL history. Now, as Watson remains the Browns starting quarterback, he will seemingly have to accept the fact that this is likely the last time he is in the NFL.
Watson, age 29, has been the worst starting quarterback in the NFL since he first took the field for Cleveland in 2022. He’s been outperformed by his backups (Joe Flacco and Jacoby Brissett) and predecessor (Baker Mayfield) despite having the Browns organization go out of its way to help him.
- Deshaun Watson stats (ESPN): 5-3 TD-INT, 1,020 passing yards, 61.3% completion rate, 5.1 yards per attempt, 31 sacks taken, 76.6 QB rating
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After Flacco vastly outperformed Watson last season, Cleveland let the fan-favorite with strong support in the locker room go without even making a contract offer. The organization was determined to not retain a backup who had already proven he could outperform Watson in the same environment.
Watson remains the worst quarterback in football this season based on a variety of NFL stats. Entering Week 7, he has the lowest quarterback rating (21.6), the most sacks taken (31) and has the lowest yards per attempt average (5.1) among starters with 100-plus attempts. He remains the Browns starting quarterback, but the clock is ticking on his NFL career ending for good.
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One NFL executive told Mike Sando of The Athletic that he believes “the league would like to see him go away” and not make a return with any franchise. A second executive shared that sentiment, sharing that Watson wouldn’t be signed by a single team if he became a free agent tomorrow.
“They could cut him tomorrow and no one would pick him up. I would not want that toxicity to have anything to do with my team build.”
Anonymous NFL executive on Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson
- Deshaun Watson contract (Spotrac): $27.942 million cap hit in 2024, $72.935 million cap hit in 2025, $72.935 million cap hit in 2026, $26.9 million dead cap in 2027
However, there is one shared idea about how Cleveland could get out of some of the money it owed Watson. The Browns could look around the league, finding a team willing to take on $30-$40 million of Watson’s cap hits in the next two years, taking that portion off Cleveland’s books, in exchange for multiple premium draft picks in future years.
The Browns were once on the receiving end of this, landing a second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft in exchange for taking on the Brock Osweiler contract and $16 million he was owed. Any team that acquired Watson via trade would release him immediately, spreading out his cap hit across multiple seasons. However, doing this would likely cost the Browns at least one first-round pick and potentially a lot more.
